Apparatus for intermittently, rotatably tumbling clothes



July 18, 1967 J. w. JACOBS ETAL 3,331,141

APPARATUS FOR INTERMITTENTLY ROTATABLY TUMBLING CLOTHES Filed Sept. 8, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 o m 0 m 2 INVENTORS James W. Jacobs BY Byron L. Bracken The/r Attorney o 5 I m w July 18, 1967 J, w. JACOBS ETAL APPARATUS FOR INTERMITTENTLY ROTATABLY TUMBLING CLOTHES Filed Sept. 8. 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 24 I Fig, 4

mrzm m .4 ma n 5 v W m .1 e r mm m 0 y .0 J5 W 6 4 0 2 9- 1 0 2 United States Patent Office 3,331,141 APPARATUS FGR INTERMITTENTLY, ROTATABLY TUMBLING CLOTHES James W. .iacobs and Byron L. Bracken, Dayton, Ohio,

assignors to General Motors Corporation, Detroit,

Mich, a corporation of Delaware Filed Sept. 8, 1964, Ser. No. 394,691 1 Claim. (Cl. 34-133) This invention relates to a clothes dryer and more particularly to an improved apparatus and method for tumbling clothes.

In a clothes dryer the idea of tumbling the clothes in a stream of heated air is to expose all of the areas of the fabric to the circulating air. In the case of heavy materials, however, such as shag rugs, the moisture is entrained deep within the pile of the material and is not easily released to the circulating air.

Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide an improved method and apparatus for intermittently rotatingly tumbling clothes in a clothes dryer.

A more particular object of this invention is the provision of a prime moving system for a tumbling drum which vibratorily rotates the tumbling drum, thereby to agitate the items being dried as they are being tumbled.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings wherein preferred embodiments of the present invention are clearly shown.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a side sectional view of a clothes dryer provided with one embodiment of this invention;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of a vibrator type motor suitable for use with the clothes dryer to provide vibratory rotation of the tumbling drum in accordance with one embodiment of this invention;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary side sectional view of another embodiment of this invention; and

FIGURE 4 is a sectional view partly in elevation of a vibratory driving means for the embodiment of FIG- URE 3.

In accordance with this invention and with reference to FIGURES 1 and 2, a vented type clothes dryer is shown generally at 10. The dryer 19 includes a control portion 12 having suitable controls for temperature and cycle termination and a cabinet 14 which enclose-s a rotatably mounted clothes or fabric tumbling drum 16. The casing 14 is comprised of a rear wall 18 having air inlet openings 20 and a front wall 22. For supporting the tumbling drum 16, a rear bulkhead 24 extends from bottom to top in spaced parallel relationship to the rear wall 13. A drum support shaft 26 is journaled on the bulkhead 24 and includes a driving portion 28 extending into the space between the bulkhead 24 and the casing rear wall 18. The tumbling drum 16 is formed in a cylindrical shape and includes a rear wall 3t) ported or perforated, as at 32, for facilitating ingress of drying air to the tumbling drum. At the opposite end of the drum an axially directed collar 34 defines the air outlet or access opening for the tumbling drum. The opening formed by the collar 34 axially aligns with an opening 36 in the casing front wall 22. interposed between the drum collar 34 and the casing opening 36 is a front port plate or drum front support member 38. This port plate 38 is fastened in a resilient seal 40 to the casing front wall 22 and has an inwardly extending collar 42 which nests in support relationship Within the drum collar 34. Suitable felt sealing material 44 is interposed between the port plate collar 42 and the drum access collar 34 to minimize leakage at this point from the tumbling drum. The port plate 38 is provided with a plurality of exhaust outlets 46 which 3,331,141 Patented July 18, 1967 passage 48 leading to a blowopen into a front duct or air er 50'.

Air circulation through the dryer is initiated by the blower 50. This blower is driven by a motor 52 to initiate air flow through the tumbling drum. The blower 50 includes an outlet duct 58 which may be connected to the side or rear walls of the dryer for connection therefrom wit-h the atmosphere in accordance with conventional practice.

In the rear wall 30 of the tumbling drum, an annular shoulder 64 is formed to support an annular flexible, noncombustible seal 66 attached thereto by a plurality of L- shaped brackets 68. The seal 66 engages the inside of the bulkhead wall 24 to define a heater chamber 69 between the bulkhead and the rear wall of the tumbling drum. It is in the annular chamber 69 that a clothes drying heater 70 is disposed.

It is desirable to filter lint from the circulating air as it leaves the tumbling drum. For this purpose an access door is hingedly mounted to the front wall 22 of the clothes dryer and is adapted to close the access opening 36 in the dryer casing and support a lint collecting housing shown generally at 84. The housing 84 includes a perforated wall 86 in axial alignment with the port plate collar 42 and the drum inlet collar 34, when the door is closed. The side of the lint collecting housing is formed by a cylindrical wall 88 fastened at one end thereof to an inner panel 81 of the door and at the other end thereof to the perforated wall 86. At the top of the housing wall 88 a top opening 90 is formed for receiving a lint collector $1. The collector includes a filter means such as a nylon screen and is slidably removable from the lint collecting housing 84 through the top opening 90. Along the bottom of the cylindrical Wall 88 a cutout 93 is provided to facilitate egress of filtered air from the housing into the front duct 48 by way of the port plate openings 46. To facilitate an airtight relationship between the lint collecting housing 84 and the port plate 38, an annular seal 96 is fastened about the periphery of the perforated wall 86. Thus, when the door 80 is closed, all air leaving the tumbling drum is channeled through the lint collecting housing 84.

In one embodiment of this invention the tumbling drum 16 is rotated in intermittent pulses by a vibratory motor 164). The motor 100 can drive the drum at the equivalent desired speed, such as 50 r.p.m., but the drum actually starts and stops many times as it rotates about its bearings. Such intermittent rotation provides vibratory action to the drum and clothes which produces a fabric agitation greatly improving the drying ability of the dryer. In other words, as the drum is being rotated at one frequency, a vibratory motion of much greater frequency is also imparted to the drum. The motor may be provided with adjustment means 102 to vary the vibratory rate of drum advance thereby controlling the amount of agitation to which the fabric is subjected. One suitable motor 100 is sold by the Energy Conversions Systems Corporation of Grafton, Wis, under the trade name Enercon. Enercon inherently is capable of extremely accurate repeatability of predetermined motion without the use of clutch and brake releases required by other motors. This motor will index accurately to one-tenth of a degree and can run forward or backward.

The air flow system defined by the construction outlined hereinabove for a vented clothes dryer is as follows. With the energization of the motors 52 and 100, both the blower 50 and the tumbling drum 16 are actuated. Air is drawn through the openings 20 into the casing rear wall and enters the heater chamber 69 by way of the inlet opening 74. After being heated by the heater 70, the air then enters the tumbling drum through the perforations 32 in the drum rear wall.

Moisture and lint are entrained in the air from the tumbling moist clothes within the tumbling drum and this moist and lint laden air is withdrawn from the tumbling drum by way of the lint collecting housing 84. Air enters the housing through the perforated housing wall and filters through the lint collecting screen 91. Filtered air leaves the lint collecting housing by way of the cutout 93, entering the front duct 48 by way of the port plate openings 46 and is withdrawn by the blower 50 for subsequent disposal by way of outlet 53 to the atmosphere. The vibratory motion imparted to the drum 16 at the same time it is being rotated serves to agitate the fabrics being dried. This agitation aids the tumbling action of the fabrics to facilitate faster evaporation of the moisture and therefore shorter drying times.

Turning now to FIGURES 3 and 4, the second clothes dryer embodiment of this invention is illustrated-the dryer 200 using the same reference numerals to designate counterpart components for those in the dryer of FIG- URE l. The drum shaft 226 of this dryer is adapted to be pulsatingly rotated by a prime moving system shown generally at 202. More particularly, the pulsating or incremental prime mover 202 includes a drive arm 204 having a hole 206 which fits over the drum shaft at one end thereof and another end extending radially from the shaft toward the periphery of the drum. The drive arm 204 is connected at its outer end on one side thereof to the armature 210 of a solenoid 208 on the bulkhead 24. On the other side thereof the arm 2:04 is connected to a return spring 212 fixedly positioned at one end thereof by a bracket 213 on the back wall 18 of the dryer. Thus, the solenoid 208 serves to rock the arm 204 in one direction while the spring 212 returns the arm in the opposite direction. In order to translate this pendulum-like rocking motion into tumbling drum rotation, a one-way spring clutch 214 is selectively grippingly positioned about the shaft 226 with an end tab 228 fastened for actuation in the drive arm 204. In order for the fabric to be agitated while it is being tumbled, the pulsingly indexing of the drum shaft should be rapid. A power source to rapidly pulsatingly energize the solenoid 208 may include a rectifying diode 230 to provide half-wave pulsing power to the solenoid. The stroke and magnetic pull of the solenoid will be such as to strike a balance with the return spring so that complete pull-in will not occur and the drive arm 204 will resonate.

It should now be seen that an improved method and apparatus has been provided for drying clothes or the like. In addition to tumbling the clothes in a drying medium, the clothes are also subjected to an agitation through the tumbling means which, by its pulsating, somewhat staccato-like rotation, tends to shake the moisture from the fabric while the fabric is being tumbled.

While the embodiments of the present invention as clearly shown constitute preferred forms, it is to be under-.

stood that other forms might be adopted.

What is claimed is as follows:

A clothes dryer comprising casing means defining a drying chamber for containing clothes during a clothes drying cycle, means for rotatably supporting said casing means, means operable for circulating heated air through said drying chamber for evaporating moisture from said clothes, and drive means operable substantially coextensivcly with said circulating means for rotating said casing means at a constant speed sufficient to cause said clothes to tumble through said heated air and for imparting a pulsating, staccato-like motion ,to said'casing means during said constant speed to vibrate said clothes simultaneously and coextensively with the tumbling thereof throughout said clothes drying cycle, said drive means in-.

eluding crank arm means having one end unidirectionally, clutchingly connected to said casing means, electromagnetic means connected to said means for supporting said casing means and having an armature connected to the other end of said crank arm means and operable to move said other end in one direction whereby to rotate said casing means through a predetermined arc, yieldable means connected to said crank arm means to move said other end in the reverse direction, and a power supply means for intermittently operating said electromagnetic means, said power supply means including a rectifying diode to provide half-wave pulsing power to said electromagnetic means, and said armature of said electromagnetic means having a stroke and magnetic pull to strike a balance with said yieldable means thereby to cause said crank arm means to resonate.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,230,345 2/1941 Bradbury 68--24 2,310,107 2/1943 Miller 310-21 2,387,216 10/1945 Hood 68-'-24 2,448,812 9/1948 Lemire 310-2l 2,814,886 12/1957 Fowler 34-45 2,819,540 1/1958 Toma et a1. 34'45 3,050,869 8/1962 Bochan 34164 MARTIN P. SCHWADRON, Primary Examiner. FREDERICK L. MATTESON, IR., Examiner.

B. L. ADAMS, Assistant Examiner. 

